Surgery Scheduled

I scheduled Oliver's first hypospadias surgery today. It will be taking place 9 weeks from today on January 6 in Philadelphia. Our neighbor who is a nurse has agreed to give Oliver his two testosterone shots. He'll have his first shot three weeks from today.

Oliver woke up at 4am this morning. We let him cry himself back to sleep. I have no idea why he woke up that early. Then he woke up at 5:45. That made sense because he used to wake up at 6:45, which is what time it would have been prior to the time change. We let him cry himself back to sleep. Nadia and Ian climbed in to bed with us at 6am, which again would have been their normal wake up time of 7am. We put them to bed according to the new time, but they woke up according to the old time, which means they lost at least one hour of sleep (Oliver lost a lot more than that). We shall see how many days it takes their bodies to switch to the time change.

25 Hour Day

Have I mentioned I am not a fan of changing the clocks twice a year? I wasn't a fan before I had kids because I didn't like my internal clock being messed with, but these last six years I really haven't been a fan of "falling back" an hour because young children do not sleep in an hour on that day. Paul used to dislike "springing forward" and used to love "falling back." It honestly was like a holiday to him to get that extra hour, ha ha! Oliver woke up at 5:15am (old time which was 4:15 the new time). I didn't go get him until what was 5:20 according to the new time. We definitely did not get an extra hour of sleep, and today was harder than usual day for the kiddos because of that extra hour. Oliver had a hard time staying up until 8pm. He was famished when we got home from church at 12:15pm because that was like 1:15 his body time, which was a very late lunch! Hopefully they will sleep until at least 6:30 tomorrow morning. Oliver and Ian had been doing a better job lately of sleeping until at least 6:45.

I liked these pjs so much a few years ago that when Old Navy had them on sale, I bought two pairs. Ian wore the first pair a few years ago (size 18-24 months) and has been wearing the size 4T pair this fall. Oliver has outgrown most of his 12 month size pjs, and I had forgotten about this duplicate until I went through the 18 month box. Ian absolutely loved that they were wearing matching pjs yesterday night. He kept saying "we look like twins!". I think I'll have to try to get them more matching outfits in the future. It is a really cute pj as the shirt says "I'm programmed for hugs" and has little robots all over the bottoms.

Last two months

The last two months of 2013 will be a bit less hectic for us because both co-ops are done, soccer is done, ladies Bible study is almost done (just one more session), and basketball doesn't start until January. One thing we are adding into our schedule is for the kids to attend the free workshops at Lowes and Home Depot. Paul took Nadia to Home Depot today to build a ship. I told her that she needs to hide it when she brings it home, as it will be either a Christmas present for Oliver or a birthday or Christmas present for Ian. Next week Paul is scheduled to take both Ian and Nadia to Lowe's to make pull back cars. I thought we'd try both programs out and then decide which to do again in the future. Both stores offer this free program once a month. These two months will work well for attending these programs, as we won't have soccer or basketball games on Saturday mornings. We're going to trade places when Paul and Nadia get home. Paul will stay home with the boys while I take Nadia to the mall. I am going to get new tires for Paul's car and while they are installing those tires do a little shopping, such as a new watch for myself as mine died a couple of weeks ago.

At the end of August I set goals for the last four months of the year. I thought now that we only have two months left, I should do a check-up. Looking at the goals, it seems we've accomplished half of them thus far. We still need to work on teaching Ian to wipe and to write his name. I haven't started teaching the kids Spanish yet. I really need to get motivated to help Nadia stop sucking her thumb in bed now that she has two wiggly teeth. I don't want her sucking her thumb with permanent teeth! I haven't weighed myself lately, but I doubt I've lost any more weight. I am having a hard time getting motivated because my clothes fit me (#13). We took the training wheels off of Nadia's bicycle (#12), but she cannot ride it without Paul or I helping her. I still need to work on my cleaning routine (#14).

We're doing well with eating vegetables (#2) and having Nadia use lowercase letters (#3). Nadia is coming along well with her behavior during the worship service (#4). I have submitted 11 applications for Paul for next year thus far (#7). Hopefully soon he'll start getting invitations for phone interviews. I've been doing a much better job of taking videos of the kids lately (#8). Nadia is coming along with adding, subtracting, and counting coins. She's almost completed three chapters of the first grade math textbook. I haven't been working with her on counting by 2's or 5's. Nadia is on step #17 of the Level 1 spelling curriculum and step #9 of the Level 2 reading curriculum. She hasn't been too faithful at practicing the piano lately. I am very pleased that the kids are watching far less television, and I am being careful to limit how much time they spend on the iPad each day (#11).

One that was on my list in January that wasn't on my list two months ago was regarding my photography skills. I am happy to say that I have not taken a single picture in automatic mode since Labor Day. I was so unhappy with the pictures I took that day at Lake Tobias, that it motivated me to use the manual mode ALL the time. I'm getting better and better at knowing what ISO to use, etc. I did sign the kids up for a Christmas mini session (15 minutes) with the photographer who took our pictures in August because I have had the hardest time getting a nice picture of all three kids together. I want a close-up to use for various things such as a new necklace for myself. The necklace I have now contains a photo Wendy took in August 2011. Another goal from that list was to work on the months of the year with Nadia and Ian, and we have begun to do that. They both can sing a song that goes through the months. They also can sing another song that contains the ten digits of my cell phone number thanks to an iPad app. As a side note, I have decided to make my list of goals for 2014 MUCH shorter. The list this year was too unwieldy!

Ian is learning to read!

I have spent almost zero time working with Ian on learning to recognize the letters of the alphabet or identifying the sounds that each letter makes. I think he learned most of his letters when I was teaching them to Nadia (when she was 3 years old and he was 2 years old), and I think the time he's spent on the iPad has helped him learn most of the sounds that he didn't know before we got the iPad. If you know the sounds each letter makes, it's not very hard to start decoding simple words. I showed him how to do it, and then Ian read four words for me by sounding them out - nap, map, jam, and mat. I took him upstairs, and Paul was very pleasantly surprised when Ian read four words to him. I've decided to start the Level 1 reading program with Ian, but I'll take it at a very slow pace with him and just do a few minutes here and there.

I had no intention of starting Ian at the age of three, but umpteen times a day he is always saying what letter a word starts with. And he's almost always right. The only time he is wrong is when it's a word that is a bit confusing (ex. a word that starts with the "j" sound but actually starts with the letter "g"). I know that play is what is most important for kids this age. That's one of the advantages of home schooling. The longest that Nadia does school work each day is two hours, and she never has any homework to do, which leaves quite a few hours for playing every day. Of course some homeschoolers would say I am making kindergarten way too academic for her. There are so many different philosophies. There are several moms in the Thursday co-cop who definitely take a very slow start approach to home schooling. Some wait until their children are eight years old to start teaching them how to read, etc. I definitely felt like the odd man out in that group because almost everyone has huge gardens, many don't get their children immunized, etc.

Nadia went through Level 1 very quickly, and she kept at the same pace through the start of Level 2, but I can see now we need to slow down quite a bit now that we've reached lesson nine. She didn't have any trouble with compound words or two syllable words that contained two closed syllables, but now that we've gotten to two syllable words that have one open and one syllable (meaning one long and one short vowel), she's having a harder time. This is one of the advantages of home schooling. I can go at the child's pace since the instruction is 100% individualized.

Technically I should be starting Ian later than Nadia because he wouldn't be old enough for Kindergarten until he was 5 years 8 months old. Since Nadia and Oliver are summer babies, they are old enough for Kindergarten shortly after turning five years old. And in many ways Ian is far less mature than Nadia was at this age - as shown by his struggles in gymnastics class. But he does seem to learn certain things more easily than Nadia did, or maybe it's just because he's not the eldest child and he has benefitted by overhearing me teaching Nadia. We shall see what happens with Oliver. That boy LOVES to play with the letter magnets on the refrigerator (Leap Frog). He has spent more time playing with them than the other two kids have put together.

Thankful Thursday

1. Paul's mom was readmitted to the hospital last Thursday. I am thankful that she was discharged two days ago. Hopefully she won't have to be readmitted any time soon! She needs to get healthy so that we can get together for her birthday (a week from today) and also so that she can undergo the treatments for her lymphoma.

2. Although I am not back to full health yet, I feel MUCH better today than I did last week. Nadia and Ian are healthy. Oliver was healthy, but his nose is running again and his cough has returned. Paul is coughing like crazy. Hopefully by next Thursday ALL five of us will be healthy as we have now been sick for SIX full weeks. Enough is enough!

3. All three kids took a nap today at the same time! Oliver has been the only one taking a 1pm nap lately, and usually he falls asleep on the way home from the co-op. He stayed awake today! Ian napped for 50 minutes, which was longer than normal. Yay! The only downside was that Ian went into Oliver's bedroom after he woke up, which woke Oliver up, and Oliver's crying then woke Nadia up. Thanks so much, Ian.

4. Today was the last day of the Thursday co-op. The Friday one ended last week. We had a potluck luncheon today to celebrate the end. I haven't decided whether I'll join this group for their 6 week spring co-op or not.

5. The weather has been warmer this week, which has made for very pleasurable walks to the park.

6. It was so nice to see my parents last weekend, and it was very helpful to not need to take all three kiddos to Oliver's urology appointment. The only downside was that my parents have come down with this awful cold. So sorry, Mom and Dad!

7. We took the kids trick or treating for the first time ever this evening. I hadn't been trick or treating in about 25 years, and it was a lot of fun. I enjoyed seeing so many different costumes. What other time in the year are so many sitting out on their front porch so they can meet kids walking down their street and give them candy, chips, or some other little treat? We lasted for 30 minutes because it was raining (a light rain thank goodness). If it hadn't been raining and/or the kids had been older, we could have walked a bit more. I was glad the temps were around 60 degrees. If it had been colder out, I don't think we would have ventured out in light of the rain. Because of the rain, I didn't take any pictures. Oliver was wearing the giraffe costume, Nadia went as Jasmine (from Aladdin), and Ian went as Dr. Seuss's cat (in the hat).

8. We finished reading The Secret Garden.  What a great book! We are now reading Nesbit's The Enchanted Castle.

Wordless Wednesday

The beginning of the end

Ian finally embraced the concept of taking one nap a day in his bed (generally one hour long) at the age of 2 1/2, and it seems that he is now in the process of giving up that nap. Over the last couple of weeks that nap has been getting shorter and shorter most days. There have been a couple of times recently where he took a really long nap (upwards of 3 hours!), but the majority of the time his nap has been 15-30 minutes long lately. Fewer of his naps have been taken in his bed because if we are traveling anywhere after 11am, he falls asleep in the van. I've tried waking him up once we are home and putting him down for a nap a couple of hours later, but he can't fall asleep a second time. Now I just let him sleep in the van in the garage if this happens. The problem then is what to do when Oliver takes his nap. Ian is a noisy little guy, and I don't think the concept of a quiet time in his bedroom during Oliver's nap will work. I'm thinking of letting him play in the basement (would be viewed as a treat) during the time he's awake but Oliver is sleeping, and if he takes his nap in the van, then I think I'll let Nadia play down there also and let her skip her quiet time.

Once the kids are older, I'll reinstate quiet time in their bedrooms (they could play or read a book), but I don't think it will work out well at this point with Ian, if I expect Oliver to sleep in the room next to him anyhow. I do find that I need a bit of downtime myself, particularly on the days when Paul doesn't get home until after they are in bed. Having one hour to myself (to do my devotions or cook dinner or blog or clean, etc.) is very helpful when I have sole responsibility for the kids for 13 hours a day. Since the weather was nice today, I let Nadia and Ian play in the backyard while Oliver napped because Ian fell asleep on the way home from ladies Bible study. Nadia gave up her nap last summer while I was in the hospital shortly after she turned four years old; so I guess it makes sense that Ian will be giving his nap up shortly as he'll be turning four years old in about six weeks.

The other change that I knew would eventually occur but hadn't implemented yet was to start having Nadia take her bath separate from the boys. My mom gave Nadia and Ian separate baths on Saturday night, and when I went to give all three kids a bath this evening, Nadia told me she wanted to take hers separately, which she had never requested before. It was a bit tricky to shampoo her hair while watching Oliver when he was out of the tub. I need to teach her to wash her own hair. It cut down the amount of time any of them spent in the tub since I divided it in half, but otherwise it worked out fine. I guess now is the time to start working on the concept of privacy between the boys and Nadia. Thus far there really has been very little privacy in terms of bathing, going to the bathroom, and getting dressed/undressed. I knew it was something we'd work on at some point, and it seems the time has come now. Several weeks ago I had started expecting more privacy for myself in regards to Nadia and Ian. Oliver still is in the bathroom with me when I shower and such. Motherhood definitely has a way of stripping you of privacy, but it's just a temporary stage. I know I should feel excited about regaining some privacy, but I'm still adjusting to the idea that my childbearing years are over. I still find myself wanting to experience things (such as nursing) again; so I feel a bit blue when I realize that certain phases of motherhood are coming to an end for me.

Cold Milk

Sometimes when you are with someone day in and day out, the changes aren't as noticeable as they are to someone (such as a grandparent) who hasn't seen the child for a month or more. My parents really noticed how Nadia's soccer skills and Ian's self-feeding skills had improved. In the moment when Ian is gagging on his dinner or taking 90 minutes to eat a small sandwich, it's easy to forget all the progress that he's made. It's helpful to stop and recall the improvements. He now fully expects to feed himself all the time. He still asks for help at dinner with stabbing food with his fork or scooping it up with his spoon, but he knows he has to use the utensil to get the food in his mouth on his own. And we're working on getting him to do more of the scooping and stabbing himself. He now is 100% independent with feeding himself at breakfast and lunch, even if he has a yogurt. Both kids are doing much better with eating vegetables. I am not saying they enjoy many vegetables, but they now realize they are going to be eating them most nights. Progress!

Nadia has also adjusted to drinking water at lunch and skim milk at breakfast and dinner. I thought she was drinking too much juice. Ian drinks skim milk at all three meals, but I recently switched him from warm milk to cold milk. I also have Oliver drinking cold milk in his sippy cup. Warm milk isn't being served in this house any more! This is very helpful because if we buy milk when we're out and about, it's always going to be cold, and it was a challenge at times in the past to warm it up when we weren't at home. Now if we could just get Ian to take less than 90 minutes to eat his dinner. On average, he spends 3.5 hours a day sitting in his booster seat at the kitchen table eating (breakfast + lunch + dinner). It's exhausting, but we are going in the right direction. It would be faster if I fed him, but in the long run, we'll be glad he learned how to feed himself. Oliver is quite the opposite. He is Mr. Independent when it comes to feeding himself, although he hasn't learned how to use any utensils yet.

Carving Pumpkins!

Yesterday morning Nadia had her last soccer game of the fall season. Each child received a really nice medal at the end of the game to commemorate their participation on the team this season. That didn't happen last time; it was a pleasant surprise. We were very glad it was the last game because the wind was blowing and the temperature was only 48 degrees. We were COLD! My parents left their house early that morning so they could arrive in time to join us for the game. They were impressed with how much Nadia had improved since they had seen her play a game last spring. She's not the strongest player on the team, but she's no longer one of the weakest. She wants to play again in the spring. Maybe she'll score her first goal next year! If both kids want to play soccer next fall, Nadia would be on a U8 team, and Ian would be an a U6 team.

We came home, had lunch, and then Paul and I started our trek to King of Prussia with Oliver. There's a REALLY huge mall there, but we went see the CHOP urologist who did Ian's second surgery. It took us 2 hours and 40 minutes to get there, and we were there for 2 hours. I wish they had let us wait in the waiting room where they had toys, but we spent almost the whole time in an exam room, where they didn't have any toys. Dr. Canning said that Oliver needs to have two shots of testosterone 6 and 3 weeks prior to the surgery because his penis is too small. The other option would be to wait until he is 2 1/2 years old to have the first surgery, but that would mean he couldn't be potty trained until he was over 3 years old, and it also means he might remember the surgeries. We opted for the testosterone shots. He thinks that it will take two surgeries (like Ian) with at least 6 months in between, but he says that he won't know for sure until he's in the surgery. It would be awesome if would only take one surgery, but it's probably better for me emotionally to just assume it will take two surgeries. We're hoping the first one will take place in early January. We shall see when the scheduling coordinator calls us.

While we were driving to and from the urologist, my parents were doing things like carving pumpkins with Nadia and Ian, taking the kids to McD's for dinner and to enjoy the play land, and giving the kids baths. We got home shortly before they went to bed. I was really dreading having Oliver in the car for 6 hours as that was the longest he ever spent in a car in one day in his life, and he doesn't like being in the car, but he did pretty well. He slept for two hours on the way there, and he slept for about an hour on the way back. We kept him up an hour later once we were home (until 9pm) in the hopes that he wouldn't wake up too early this morning, but he still got up an hour earlier than usual this morning. My parents spent the night and went with us to our former church this morning because I was playing the handbells. After having lunch at Perkins we came home and watched football with them. Paul took Nadia and Ian to a church's trunk or treat event this afternoon, which they really enjoyed. My parents left after we ate dinner. The kids have never gone trick or treating before, but we are planning to take them this Thursday night. No one goes trick or treating around our neighborhood. They'll probably wear different costumes on Thursday, but today Nadia went as Rapunzel and Ian went as a clown. It was great seeing my parents. Hopefully we'll see them again next month for Thanksgiving! I have more pictures, but I'll save some for later this week!

Thankful Thursday

1. Oliver's morning nap almost never lasts more than 30 minutes, but yesterday his morning nap was 1 hour and 50 minutes long!!! I. Could. Not. Believe. It. It was so much easier to do Nadia's schoolwork with her, and I also got a lot more cleaning done than I usually get done in the morning. I was thinking he might take a shorter than usual afternoon nap. His afternoon nap rarely exceeds 60 minutes, but yesterday his afternoon nap was 90 minutes long. WOOHOO! I don't think he's had two good naps on the same day in five months. Even if he did this once a week, it would be a big help to me.

2. I am starting to feel better. Hopefully next Thursday I'll be able to say that we are ALL healthy.

3. Ian's puzzle skills have improved so much that I have taken all the 24 piece jigsaw puzzles to the basement. I'll bring them back up when Oliver is ready for that size, but Ian is now doing ones that have at least 48 pieces all by himself. Nadia does puzzles that have at least 100 pieces.

4. The kids are really enjoying the iPad, and they are learning a lot at the same time. Bestappsforkids.com and Smartappsforkids.com are two great websites for learning about free apps.

5. Ian and Nadia like meatloaf. Unfortunately Paul won't eat meatloaf, but I'm happy to find something that the kids will eat with me. Nadia likes it without ketchup, and Ian likes it with massive amounts of ketchup. They are also making great progress with eating the following vegetables: green beans, peas, carrots, and corn. Nadia has really been into apples lately.

6. I came up with a solution for the gymnastics situation. It was a waste of money to pay for Ian to be in the class, and I couldn't envision trying to keep both boys entertained for a full hour during Nadia's class. I was going to have her take a break until early January, but I signed her up for a class on Thursdays from 4:15-5:15, and I'm going to take the boys to the library during her class (the library is very close to the gym). I won't be able to watch her, but I really wouldn't have been able to watch her if I was entertaining her brothers. The co-ops are ending, her last soccer game is on Saturday, and basketball won't start until early January. I wanted her to still have at least one "athletic" activity a week.

7. I read a really great book (Beloved Daughter) recently on the Kindle (Amazon had it for free recently). It was heartbreaking as it was about the mistreatment of Christians in North Korea, but it was a very gripping story. I look forward to reading other books in the series. We also saw a good movie lately (42) about Jackie Robinson.